KA'UPULEHU, Hawai'i — As the wind blessed the second day of the 2008 Champions Tour season, it blew Allen Doyle and Fred Funk to the front of the MasterCard Championship at Hualalai and pushed more than a few guys back.

Doyle, the world's oldest-living PGA Tour rookie when he turned pro more than a decade ago, birdied the last two holes yesterday to take a one-shot advantage into today's final round. He followed up a 63 with a 6-under-par 66. At 15-under 129, it is the highest 36-hole score by a leader since 2004, at a course that has experienced almost no "weather" at the event the past few years.

Funk cut through the breeze for a 63 — one-putting his first seven holes — to erase what he let get away in Friday's flawless, and all but breathless, conditions. He is a shot back. First-round leader Tom Purtzer (69) and Jim Thorpe (68) are two back. Jay Haas, the tour's Player of the Year the past two seasons, pulled into fifth at 12-under.

As usual, Sunday at Hualalai will be a shootout, with wind the best barometer of what score will win. Yesterday's scoring average (69.756) was more than two shots higher than Friday, which was a first-round record.

If tradition holds, today's champion will also be the best putter. The past four winners — Hale Irwin, Loren Roberts, Dana Quigley and Fuzzy Zoeller — have led the putting statistics.

Doyle needed 27 putts yesterday in a round that included eight birdies and two bogeys, because of a three-putt at the third and the lava rocks on the birdie-friendly par-5 seventh. If that was like giving away two shots, Doyle got 'em back on the last two birdie-unfriendly holes; he drained a 5-footer on the par-3 17th and a 26-footer on the seemingly illegible 18th green.

"I'm tickled to be where I'm at," said Doyle.

That covers a lot of ground. He turned pro in 1996, at age 47, to try and earn enough money to get daughters Erin and Michelle through college. Both ended up getting golf scholarships and dad has won more than $12 million. Erin was his caddie for three years, and is on his bag this week as part of a "working vacation" from her Atlanta marketing job; Michelle will be on the bag next week at Turtle Bay.

Doyle has 19 straight subpar rounds at Hualalai, but his best finish is fifth. "I've played well here in the past," he said. "I just can't make all those birdies."

His hockey-inspired swing and precise game are more suited for narrow fairways and bad rough. The last of his 11 wins was the 2006 U.S. Senior Open and, after the 2001 Player of the Year dropped out of the top 20 for the first time in his senior career last year, he lost 20 pounds in the offseason.

In contrast Funk, 51, is now sharing time on the PGA and Champions tours and is playing for the third straight week here after winning about $200,000 at the Mercedes-Benz Championship and Sony Open in Hawai'i the last two weeks. After opening with a 67, he sank six straight putts from inside 8 feet to start yesterday's round — one for par — then drained a 12-footer for eagle on the seventh.

He was 8-under on the 13th tee and the thought of a rare sub-60 score slapped him in the face.

"I make five out of the last six and I got 59," he recalled. "I did think about it. A lot of people say you don't want to think about it but I thought, 'I can do that.' "

Ultimately, he regretted the ones that got away from him — but not Doyle — on the last three holes, all from inside 20 feet.

"I needed to make those," Funk said. "It was a great round, obviously a ridiculously good start, a dream start to shoot 7-under the first seven holes. That's as good as it gets ... 63 was great. But with that kind of start it could have been a lot better. But I'm pleased overall. I pulled myself back in contention and have a shot at winning.

"If it blows like this again tomorrow it may take another one of these, but it's out there."

Funk will defend his title at the Turtle Bay Championship next, after blitzing the field by a tour-record 11 shots last year. But first, there is the matter of today's $300,000 first prize. It would help Funk immensely with his goal of making $2 million on each tour this year.

"It will be a blast," said Doyle, who tees off last with Funk at 1:10 p.m. "Freddie's a good man. He brings a lot to our tour. If you win any tournament out here it's great. If you've beaten some guys that bring the special effects, for instance Fred now and Tom Watson and the new guys on the block ... the names, it's a little bit extra."

NOTES

Fred Funk will finish off his self-described Hawai'i Slam and defend his title at Turtle Bay, which tees off Friday at the resort's Palmer Course. Pre-qualifying is today, with the open qualifier tomorrow.

All but three of the golfers who finished in the top 25 on the money list last year will be on the North Shore, with Jay Haas, Tom Watson and Mark O'Meara the exceptions.

Others in the 78-player field include Hawai'i's David Ishii, Dick McClean and Kiyoshi Murota (sponsor exemptions), Dave Eichelberger and former Kailua resident Scott Simpson. All but six of the players in the MasterCard will be at Turtle Bay.

GolfWorld collected a few post-Sony Open in Hawai'i notes. One that jumped out involved the PGA Tour's new "radar stats," that measure swing and ball speeds and ball flight. Punahou senior Alex Ching, who earned the amateur slot at Sony, hit the highest tee ball of any golfer at Sony, with an average of 125 feet, one inch. Charles Howell III hit the lowest, at 55 feet, 8 inches.

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com.